Sonia has waited all day with Dunya, who came that morning after Svidrigaïlov's hint that Sonia knew; when he enters at dark he says he has come for your cross, though he mocks the cross-roads command even as she places the wooden peasant cross on him and keeps Lizaveta's copper one for herself. He rambles about stupid faces at the station, prefers the Explosive Lieutenant to Porfiry, admits he nearly shook his fist at Dunya for a last look, tells Sonia he is going to prison, crosses himself at her plea, wraps her in Marmeladov's green family shawl, and storms out alone, then despises himself as a beggarly contemptible wretch who wanted her tears to delay him.
On the canal and Hay Market he cannot fix his attention, pictures the prison van, gives a copeck to a beggar, laughs at a drunk, then recalls Sonia's order to bow down, kiss the earth, and say aloud I am a murderer. He kneels in the square twice with tears; mockery checks the words on his lips, but he sees Sonia following behind the shanties and knows she is with him for ever. He climbs the familiar spiral stairs to the police office, wavers between Nikodim Fomitch and Ilya Petrovitch, and meets Ilya's dining chatter about literature, Zametov, nihilists, midwives, and suicides until a voice names Svidrigaïlov and he cries that Svidrigaïlov has shot himself, turning pale and reeling out into the yard where Sonia stands clasping her hands.
He almost leaves after Svidrigailov's name, meets Sonia's despair in the yard, grins meaninglessly, and goes back inside. He returns to the table, refuses water, and distinctly confesses that it was he who killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister Lizaveta with an axe and robbed them, repeating the statement as people run up while Ilya Petrovitch's mouth falls open.
Coming Up in Chapter 40
When he went into Sonia's room, it was already getting dark. All day Sonia had been waiting for him in terrible anxiety. Dounia had been waiting with her. Dounia gained one comfort: her brother would not be alone.
